Roy Moore chairman Bill Armistead says facts will exonerate Moore

Roy Moore campaign chairman Bill Armistead said he's "doubling down" on his support for Moore after Beverly Young Nelson's allegation and asked voters to be patient and wait for information that exonerates Moore.

Armistead was asked today if Moore would be willing to testify under oath about the sexual assault alleged by Nelson, as Nelson said she was willing to do.

"Let's just wait and see what happens the next few days with some of their stories and I think it will be clear we don't need a hearing," Armistead said. "I just ask the voters to be patient and watch what comes out in the next few days and I think they'll be reassured that Judge Moore is telling the truth."

Asked why he was confident that would happen, Armistead said:

"We're getting information every day, all day long, and we just have to verify it. Obviously, we're not going to go off half-cocked and take everything that's coming our way about some of these allegations. But we're taking them. We're carefully looking at them and trying to document the information that's coming to us to make sure it's valid information. So with the amount of information that's coming to us leads me to believe that some of this will be substantiated in the near future."

Nelson, wiping tears at times during a press conference with attorney Gloria Allred, said Moore assaulted her in his car outside the Gadsden restaurant where she worked when she was 16 and Moore was a county prosecutor and, according to Nelson, a regular customer. A page in Nelson's high school yearbook bears what she says is Moore's signature and a message dated Dec. 22, 1977. Nelson says Moore offered her a ride home from the restaurant a week or two after signing the yearbook but instead parked, groped her breasts and tried to force her head onto his crotch. Nelson she resisted and Moore gave up, leaving her behind the restaurant with a bruised neck and a warning that no one would believe her because she was a child and he was a county prosecutor.

Moore says he has never met Nelson. Armistead was asked today about Nelson's story and the signature in the yearbook.

"First of all, I say that Judge Moore doesn't know Beverly Nelson," Armistead said. "And doesn't know how she's come up with a yearbook that has that inscription in it. So, we'd probably want to have someone look at the handwriting to determine if that's really his handwriting or not, if it's been copied from something else.

"Then there's some question about the restaurant itself, as to whether it was there during the period of time that she has said it was. There's some investigation going on to determine the legitimacy of that."

The restaurant, Olde Hickory House, was in business in Gadsden in 1977, according to a city directory.

City directory confirms Ole Hickory House stood at 305 East Meighan Blvd in Gadsden in 1977. Site now has Rally's. pic.twitter.com/5SG707uwJp

Nelson's accusation follows the Nov. 9 story in the Washington Post about Leigh Corfman's allegation that Moore took her to his house when she was 14 and he was 32, in 1979, undressed her and himself down to their underwear and touched her over her underwear while guiding her hand to his crotch. Corfman said she wanted to leave, got dressed and asked Moore to take her home, and he did.

Moore said the Washington Post story was a false attack intended to derail his campaign. He faces Democratic nominee Doug Jones in the Dec. 12 election.

Besides the Corfman allegation, The Washington Post story quoted three other women who said Moore dated them or asked them out when they were ages 16-18 and he was in his early 30s. None said their activities with Moore went beyond kissing.

During a radio interview with Sean Hannity last week, Moore did not clearly deny that he had dated teenage girls when he was in his early 30s.

Armistead, asked about that today, said he didn't know or care if Moore dated teenage girls. He said what matters are the allegations by Corfman and Nelson, which he says are false.

"This story is not about whether he dated teenage girls or not," Armistead said. "This is about whether he abused young people. And he didn't do that. And so, I don't know if he has ever dated a teenage girl in his 30s. But I don't think that's the story that's before us right now. I think the story is the charges that have been alleged against him of wrongdoing, and they are false."

Armistead, a former state Republican Party chairman and former state senator, said he's been with Moore on a daily basis for about six months and strongly believes in his character.

"There's just a complete distortion of what's taken place with these ladies coming forward," Armistead said. "Judge Moore doesn't know either of these ladies that accuse him of doing something inappropriate with them.

"I believe Judge Moore. I think the people of Alabama believe Judge Moore. He's been out there for over 30 years in the public arena. And people have learned to trust him and learned to know that he's a man of God."